Vice President Boakai Joins Catholic Community in Bomi to Celebrate Thanksgiving Day

Friday, 5th November 2010

Monrovia, Liberia - Liberia’s Vice President Joseph N. Boakai on Thursday joined the Catholic Community in Tubmanburg, Bomi County to celebrate National Thanksgiving Day which coincided with the Church’s Annual Harvest Celebration.

The twin celebration which started with a mass at the St. Dominic’s Catholic Church in Tubmanburg, was climaxed with the Harvest program which was this year intended to raise funds for the completion of construction work on the Public School and the Parish Church of St.John the Baptist in Belle Baloma, Gbarpolu County.

Fund raising activities held at the program included sale of agricultural produce, a birth-month rally and sale of food and drinks.

Speaking at the ceremony, Vice President Boakai called on Liberians to hold together, irrespective of cultural, social and ethnic diversity, so as to sustain the peace they now enjoy.

He God has endowed the country with vast natural resources, but advised that the only way Liberians can build a great nation is when they put peace and unity first.

The Liberian Vice President commended Father Gary, the Priest of the St. Dominic’s Parish for taking the initiative to bring light to Belle District by constructing a high school and Church there.

He described “Father Gary as a man who truly loves God and people”, and someone who has a passion for empowering impoverished people noting, ”Very few people go about doing this”.

Vice President Boakai thanked the Catholic prelate for what he is doing for Liberia and pledged five bundles of zinc for the project. “Our hearts are with you,” he assured the Catholic prelate.

In his homily, the Coadjutor Archbishop of Monrovia, Most Rev. Lewis Jerome Zeigler challenged Liberians to forgive one another, love their country and resolve to live in peace.“We have to forgive one another, if we are to sustain the peace we now enjoy. Forgive your neighbor and let’s move on with our development,” Archbishop Zeigler said, adding, “Having gone through a bitter experience, the first thing Liberians need to do is to love this country”.

He said God has blessed this country with so much rainfall, sunshine, rich soil and minerals that all Liberians need to praise and thank Him everyday of their lives, and not just on Thanksgiving Day.

“If we sit and count our blessings, we will not ask why we should always thank God,” the Catholic prelate said.

In remarks at the Harvest Thanksgiving, United States Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield thanked Father Gary for everything he is doing for the people of Liberia.

Bomi County Superintendent Samuel F. Brown who received the Vice President upon arrival in Tubmanburg, thanked Father Gary for taking the initiative to bring light to Belle Baloma in Gbarpolu County.